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Thursday, 17 December 2015

Holiday seasons mean many things to people. For us, we have a quiet Christmas with a few family members staying. It's nice to be together, and we make no demands on each other! I hope whatever your celebration is, you enjoy it in the way you'd most like, and enable others to enjoy theirs too.

If you're still stuck for gifts, our books are widely available, and if you buy the paperbacks you can often get the ebook free when buying through Amazon.

You can also easily gift ebooks in a format to suit every eReader, even if you don't know what the recipient uses, if you go from our Smashwords pages. Click one of the links in the sidebar and scroll down to the 'also by this publisher' for more options.

News:

Jemima has finished the first re-edit of The Perihelix, book 1 of the Viridian System series, and is now addressing some further improvements she wants to make. We're currently looking at a February release date.

Monday, 30 November 2015

For a limited period, the ebooks of the first three books of the Princelings of the East series are on sale at 99c each - or 99p or 99 eurocents. That's $2 or £2 or €2 off both Pirates and Lost City. And in case you'd rather have the paperbacks to give as a gift this Christmas, you can buy those through Amazon.com and get the ebooks FREE.

You can buy the paperback at Amazon and Createspace.If you get it, it would be great if you would post your review on your buying site. Thank you.You also still have time to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for a chance of winning one of two copies of the book - entries close on 26th November (Thanksgiving).

Sunday, 8 November 2015

Nobody goes to Norfolk by accident - it is one of the corners of England on the 'least visited' list, but it's a great place to go, and only two hours by train from London.

Jemima lives in Norfolk, and will be signing books at the Christmas Fair at Great Witchingham Village Hall on Sunday 15th November between 2pm and 5 pm. As the poster says, there will be plenty of other stalls if you'd like to do a little Christmas shopping - and Santa Claus will be visiting, too.

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Timely guidance for Jemima Pett as she starts to work on more stories from Willoughby the Narrator - both for the Princelings website for Christmas and for the seventh in the Princelings of the East series.

Sunday, 1 November 2015

Congratulations to the winner of the Princelings and the Pirates on the Goodreads Giveaway last month.

We've now started another - for the Princelings and the Lost City. One copy available internationally as always. You have to be a member to enter, but it's free, and it's a great way of meeting other readers and finding out other books you might enjoy!

This is Jemima's favourite Princelings book, except for the one she's in the middle of writing. It is probably best read after Pirates, although it does have a handy 'who's who' at the start if you're new to the series.

Monday, 19 October 2015

The pre-orders are open for early birds wishing to catch the worm on November 12th - the launch date for the second BookElves Anthology, featuring stories by Cheryl Carpinello, Rebecca Douglass, Wendy Leighton-Porter, SW Lothian, Annaliese Matheron, Jemima Pett and Ben Zackheim.

Friday, 16 October 2015

The announcement by Smashwords of their new partnership with Gardners, the UK's largest book wholesaler, means that all our books - ALL our books - are now available to over 400 small ebook retailers powered by Gardners in over 32 countries. These retailers serve 138 countries.

It also includes distribution to thousands of public and academic libraries, including 2,000 public libraries in the UK. Every Smashwords book will be listed for patrons in every library - patrons will not have to ask their library to acquire it.

We're delighted that working with Smashwords brings us these extra benefits, as for a small publisher discoverability is everything. Amazon's algorithms don't really promote our books, although White Water Landings does seem to be hitting a spot, as we thought it might, in the aviation history and family history genres. But then, the non-fiction world is less competitive.

Oyster and Flipkart no longer carry Smashwords titles. Oyster has been acquired by Amazon, and Flipkart could not adapt their systems quickly enough to respect Amazon's exclusivity criteria. Please refer to the Smashwords website for details if you need them.

Monday, 5 October 2015

We have a lovely, or rather, two lovely reviews from the BookShelf Gargoyle today, winding up the Princelings of the East Blog Tour 2015.

On Princelings of the East:At times, during Fred’s story arc, I felt a bit like I was reading Jane Austen (for guinea pigs) and during George’s, I felt like I’d fallen into Back to the Future (for guinea pigs). While this might sound an unpromising match, it actually worked really well to keep me engaged. And as I mentioned before, whenever I remembered that these were guinea pigs – riding in carriages, fixing industrial vending machines and the like – it gave me a chuckle. It’s rare that you find a book that is pitched nominally at children that also has enough intellectual material in the plot to keep adults interested, but this is one of those books.
On Princelings and the Pirates:I thoroughly enjoyed this story, being partial to tales set on the high seas and the whole “main characters are guinea pigs” thing really had me giggling as my mind boggled at some of the more swashbuckly battle scenes in which the characters engage. This book also had many more touching scenes as friends, new and old, fall into dangerous situations and the thin line between life and death becomes a tenuous one to walk.
See the whole post here:https://thebookshelfgargoyle.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/an-engineer-and-a-philosopher-walk-into-a-time-tunnel-the-princelings-of-the-east-blog-tour/

Thursday, 1 October 2015

Congratulations to the two winners of the Princelings of the East on the Goodreads Giveaway last month.

We've now started another - for the Princelings and the Pirates. Just one copy this time, but international as always. You have to be a member to enter, but it's free, and it's a great way of meeting other readers and finding out other books you might enjoy!

Wednesday, 2 September 2015

If you're not a member of the Insecure Writers Support Group #IWSG, this won't interest you. If you are, it contains details of the Anthology contest 2015. Entries, word count 5000-6000, by 1st November 2015.

Avoiding Amazon? The 5 best alternatives to the online bookseller giants

Amazon has been the subject of renewed criticism after an expose of its employment practices in the New York Times.
In the nearly 6,000 word piece, the newspaper claimed workers in its Pennsylvania warehouse were forced to work in temperatures in the high 30s - with no air conditioning - until a newspaper reported on it.

Waterstones carries the six new Princelings paperbacks, and reference a blog post, which tags a Jemima Catlin, not Pett! It lists the hardback of White Water Landings at £29.99 to order (up to 3 weeks, but if most of that is Blurb's turn-round, then you'll probably get it in a week if you're in the UK). It does a Click&Collect service from your local store.

At least this shows that the distribution from Blurb via Ingram is working.

Non-UK customers: check your main retailers, but remember that BookDepository carries most of the books, and delivers free to most countries.

The romance of pre-war air travel meets the romance of a man and a woman kept apart by war in this memoir of a young man and his career in Africa with Imperial Airways.

White Water Landings - views of the Imperial Airways Africa service from the ground - covers intriguing details of the Empire Flying Boat service - from the commissioning of the plane Centaurus to the indiscretions of the passengers, from the dangers of a herd of buffalo at night to the bravery of exiles waiting for transfer via Khartoum and Lagos up to London.

Saturday, 15 August 2015

It's a day for Jemima to write about her love of book series and select her top Middle Grade book series for the entertainment of the many followers of Renee at Mother Daughter Book Reviews today.

Not surprisingly, Jemima chooses many of her fellow BookElves to highlight in this list. She also gives a mention of the next BookElves Anthology, due out in November, and invites people to 'Like' the BookElves Facebook page.

Friday, 17 July 2015

The first three books of the Princelings series are FREE from Smashwords from now until midnight, 31st July (Pacific Time).

The Princelings of the East is permafree on Smashwords, but this is a great opportunity to pick up the Princelings and the Pirates or the Princelings and the Lost City for nothing, too. This offer only applies to ebooks, but you can select the versions for kindle or for Nook, Kobo and iPad - or even as a pdf if you prefer. Just click on the book you want and follow the instructions on the buying link.

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

We've already mentioned the new set of paperbacks for the Princelings series: we have the copies of Books 5 and 6 (Talent Seekers and Bravo Victor) in hand already, and the three Princelings Trilogy paperbacks have just gone to be printed.

Our biggest headache (apart from pricing, as they vary by over one UK pound between the cheapest base price and the most expensive) has been the new cover for the Traveler in Black and White. The problem is mainly that Jemima loves the existing cover and finds it hard to like anything else. We're getting there!

Monday, 11 May 2015

We finally launch White Water Landings today, the story of Geoffrey Pett and his adventures in Africa during the 1930s and through to 1945, setting up the Imperial Airways flying boat service and handling the traffic through Cairo during the war.

The romance of pre-war air travel meets the romance of a man kept apart by war

from the woman he loves

You can read more details of the book on our White Water Landings web page.

Friday, 8 May 2015

Thanks to some sterling work by our illustrator Danielle English, we're nearly ready with the new paperbacks of The Princelings of the East series.

The first four books have had a complete makeover (and some minor editing), the most recent two have just had a touch-up and check-up. We're still hoping to go to press with them on 15th May.

Here's a sneak preview of the new cover for book 1:

We're including a page of review snippets on the first page of each book. We are a little short of reviews for Bravo Victor, so if you've read it and would like to be quoted, get your review online as soon as possible, and send us the link!

The paperback (ISBN/EAN13 1508700389 / 9781508700388) is available in our Createspace shop now, and is already listed on Amazon.com. Pre-publication price is $14.95 or £9.99.

The hardcover book (ISBN:9781320766913) should be publicly available from the beginning of May. It is now available to order from your favourite store using the ISBN shown. The retail price is £30 or thereabouts.

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

March has whizzed by and I'm pleased to say that White Water Landings is well on course for its release date of 11th May, in hardcover, paperback and ebook (Kindle) formats. Those of you waiting for it for Nook, Kobo or iPad will need to wait a little longer, I'm afraid.